A Cafe ten Years later
by Ar-Kaos
Summary: A chance meeting? Long after Nerima came to a head two of the players meet. What secrets do they now hide and what future for the two of them? RxN


**A café ten years later.**

"It really is you?" she confirmed. The woman talking was tall, striking and very well dressed. Her pageboy cut was now accentuated with highlights and feathering that showed the touch of a truly professional hairdresser and her clothes had likewise matured into far more expensive variants. One thing that had not changed was that peculiar light that shone n her eyes when she found a chance upon a secret.

He young man she was talking to nodded in reply, his long plaid bobbing in time with his head. His hair however was one of the few things that had remained the same. Of the cocky, almost arrogant youth that had left Nerima all those years ago there was little sign. Instead Nabiki found herself looking into the eyes of a stranger.

"The one and only" Saotome Ranma replied with more than a trace of irony. He lifted his eyes towards the bar and ordered another drink.

"Drinking before midday Saotome?" Nabiki asked, her mocking smile doing little to hide her genuine curiosity.

"It was a long night" Ranma replied, allowing a hint of his fatigue to show.

"What was her name" Nabiki teased.

"Luo Fah" Ranma replied, pointedly. "But no we weren't screwing."

"So the innocent Saotome learnt to swear?" Nabiki teased, hiding her shock.

"Among other things," Ranma replied, gratefully accepting another raw scotch.

"And where is she now?" Nabiki inquired, almost instantly regretting the question. Ranma fixed her with his stormy blue-grey eyes and cocked a half grin.

"Resting peacefully" he answered, raising his glass in silent salute. Nabiki knew enough about people not to need the unspoken said. It seemed Ranma had also learnt to kill.

"China?" she asked.

"China" he replied, and for a moment dared hope that would be enough.

"So is this part of the…."

"Dark Emperor's legacy?" Ranma filled in, "Yes, it is. Seems that he planned against the day someone might beat him, and left pieces of himself with chosen slaves for safekeeping."

"Not so blind as we thought," Nabiki joked, darkly.

"Only when it came to himself," Ranma disagreed, "The bastard sure as hell didn't care a great deal for the innocents he trod on, or cut up."

"So all the hocus pocus stuff.."

"Worse than you would ever belive" Ranma replied, a haunted look coming to his eyes, "far worse" he continued in a quieter voice.

"Is Xian…..?" Nabiki pried, unable not to ask the question. Before everything had gone to hell, literally, she had found herself quite getting on with the bubbly amazon. Even though she knew the girl would have let her know had she been able, for some reason she need ed to hear him say the words. Ranma answered with a shake of the head.

"Nearly threee years ago now," he explained. "Nothing any of us could do about it."

"Did you two ever…."

"Yeah" Ranma said with a lighter smile. "Who wins the sweeps?" He asked a hint of laughter in the corner of his eye.

"That all depends when it happened Saotome," Nabiki teased back, happier on safer ground.

"Almost three years ago" Ranma answered, "the night before she went after him."

"You mean?"

"Yes Nabiki" Ranma replied, "we only had the one night together and even that one was cut short."

"Whoa" Nabiki said. "So has there been…"

"Anyone else?" Ranma asked. "Yes Nabiki there have been others, and no I am not going to tell you who."

"In the old days I wouldn't have taken no for an answer," Nabiki teased.

"In the old days there wouldn't have been stories to tell." Ranma retorted. For a long moment silence reigned as both the conversants reminisced of simpler times.

"So you seem to have done well for yourself," Ranma said, breaking the silence. Nabiki raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Your clothes must have cost more than the dojo if those brands are real," He explained.

"They are real" Nabiki asserted, "and I am once again surprised you noticed. The old Saotome wouldn't have paid attention if I had come in wearing a sack." Ranma's derisive snort once again threw Nabiki off, it just was s unlike the boy she had known.

"Little you know" he replied.

"Explain" she ordered.

"Just because I never made moves on the girls didn't mean that I never noticed what they were wearing." Ranma replied, "And the way I remember it if you had turned up in a sack you would have had every girl in the school n one by the end of the week"

"I did have quite a following" Nabiki smiled, remembering again.

"And you no doubt would have sent more than one kid to hospital with blood loss" Ranma added.

"Ranma!" Nabiki mock chided "Was that a complement?"

"Nah" he joked back, "an accusation"

"Ow" she joked, relaxing a little more, this Ranma may not be the one she had known but he was certainly easy company. So she hadn't been mistaken, this Ranma was more than aware of her 'assets.'

"So who's picking up the tab?" he asked, it took her a few scant seconds to work out what he meant.

"I work for a company called Arasaka" Nabiki informed him, "they pay me very well indeed."

"I can see how the 'Boys in Black' would come to appreciate your worth" Ranma replied, unsuccessfully trying to hide his scorn for her parent company.

"You got a problem with Araska?" Nabiki asked, already suspecting the answer.

"No more than any other megacorp that feels it has a right to own people," Ranma asserted, but Nabiki could tell that there was more to the story.

"What about you?" she asked "How do you make ends meet these days?"

"This and that" Ranma answered very evasively, "most recently I won a tournament or two." Nabiki's eyebrow flicked back up, the last thing she had expected from Ranma had been dismissive modesty.

"And that pays well?" she asked. HE just nodded a reply, and in doing s ensured that she would not rest until she found out more details.

"I thought you hated that sort of thing" she continued.

"Needs must as the devil.." Ranma offered, but she knew there was more to it.

"Seen many of the others?" Nabiki asked, making yet another mental note to investigate this young enigma.

"Ran in to Ryoga in LA last year," Ranma answered, smile returning, "course he thought he was in Hokkaido but hey that's Ryoga for you."

"And I suppose you got into a fight," she joked, knowing the tow of them couldn't have resisted for long.

"No" Ranma disagreed, "as a matter of fact we didn't." Nabiki was genuinely shocked. "Just as things were about to get interesting he was run down by a tram. Damn if the poor thing didn't get messed up."

"You mean the tram" Nabiki concluded.

"It would take a lot more than a few tonnes of wood and steel to flatten Ryoga these days" Ranma agreed. "Course by the time we had pulled everyone out of the wreckage he had to run, Akari was expecting him home for dinner."

"She must be a witch or something" Nabiki added, still amazed at the other woman's ability to make the lost boy find his way.

"Nah" Ranma disagreed, "just cooks the meanest teriaki this side of paradise."

"Ah so the Saotome stomach has also remained the same?" Nabiki concluded. Ranma nodded joining in her smiles.

"It would take a lot more than being killed a couple of times to take that part of me away" Ranma asserted.

"Look, much as I really love meeting up with you again I have this board meeting…." Nabiki said, genuinely rueful.

"And the big Black Chrysanthemum will not be disappointed" Ranma agreed, unintentionally letting on that he knew more about her position within the corporation than he had earlier implied.

"You are not meant to be able to know when Arasaka Saburo has his meetings" Nabiki warned.

"And I am pretty sure that you aren't meant to have taken time out of your day to talk to an old flame"

"Old flame?" Nabiki asked, "Oh the engagement, I had almost forgotten."

"Yeah right" Ranma disagreed. "I am sure a little thing like finding yourself engaged to your late sister's ex was hardly worth the effort to remember."

"Okay, maybe I d recall a little more, but that was all a long time ago"

"Yet your finger's are still bare" he pointed out.

"I really have to go" she asserted, once again regretting the necessity. "Perhaps we could meet up again later…"

"Dinner?" he asked, throwing her again. "I'll meet you at the flower temple at say eightish?"

"I'd like that" she replied, meaning it.

O

O

O

Ranma watched her perfect rear sway out of the joint, and then turned his attention back to the goons reflected on the surface of his glass. They hadn't moved, but they were clearly readying themselves for action.

He let out a long sigh and laid a handful of bills down on the table.

No sooner had the waiter acknowledged his nod of thanks than Ranma sprung into action. With the harsh spirit leading his way he leapt to engage the goons.

There were three of them, large coats doing little to hide either their bulk or the layered armour beneath their threads.

The leader was instantly blinded by the scotch, unable to draw the handgun he had secreted in a shoulder holster. His second was less lucky, Ranma's hard right cross wiped his nonchalant smile from his face by the simple expedient of snapping his jaw. As Ranma whirled to engage the final thug a tiny flick of the wrist sent the sharp left end of that same jaw into the brain stem of the unlucky man, he was dead before he even registered Ranma's sudden move.

Number three turned out to be more of a challenge, he quickly assumed an Aikido stance and drew the master's circle defence around him. Ranma went through it like a chainsaw in a butter factory. A simple raised knee combined with a lightening fast upwards palm strike and a three finger jab to destroy the thug's valiant effort. He too never saw the hand that killed him.

By now the leader had blinked just enough to realise that everything had gone to hell and was just attempting his version of the Saotome final attack when the back of his skull received one short sharp tap. His last words were a Chinese curse. His legs carried him another three feet before his body realised that nobody was home anymore.

The only other patron of the café took just long enough to realise what the score was before once more burying his face into his paper. This was definitely nothing to do with him.

Ranma left, disappearing back into the Osaka crowds, he was whistling a jaunty tune and for the first time in what seemed like years actually genuinely looking forward to the unknown path ahead of him.


End file.
